The JOBS Act at Year One: A Changing Hedge Fund Communications Landscape The private world of hedge funds is looking more like Madison Avenue. Hedge funds today are everywhere – in daily headlines, social media, public web sites, live TV coverage, and even highly visible Las Vegas bashes. They are also increasingly in the portfolios of institutional and retail investors. Once a shadowy, inaccessible and little understood part of the asset management world, hedge funds are growing, diversifying, extending product lines, acquiring competitors, targeting new markets, stepping up client relations – in short, acting more and more like the large, sophisticated businesses they’ve become. Driving and supporting this business transition is a changing attitude toward and approach to marketing communications. As hedge funds have grown to $2-trillion-plus in assets, they are tackling issues and opportunities like brand, visibility and reputation, all in the face of stiff competition. September 23, 2014, marks the first anniversary of the enactment of the Jumpstart Our Businesses (JOBS) Act, and provides an opportunity to look at how hedge fund communications have evolved. The JOBS Act was designed to spark U.S. economic growth in part by allowing hedge funds to solicit accredited investors. As a result, hedge funds are now allowed to employ tactics such as engaging the media, building accessible web sites, advertising and even social media. And while neither we nor others point to the JOBS Act as the sole driving force behind the implementation of new communications strategies by hedge funds in recent years, no one denies that these changes are taking place. So what has changed in hedge fund communications since the JOBS Act went live? Here’s a run-down of the key areas that are most affected, including social media, web sites, traditional media, advertising and executive hiring. Hedge Funds Go Social Live blogging from hedge fund conferences. Activist managers Tweeting about dinners and deals. Long-form YouTube videos explaining the economy. Hedge fund marketing decks posted to LinkedIn. Today’s conversations are moving online and the hedge fund industry is following suit. Though the pace of change is deliberate rather than dramatic, it’s nonetheless real change as hedge funds begin the transition from being a topic of conversation to leading the conversation. To illustrate this trend consider this chart from GNIP, a leading social data provider, which tracks monthly mentions of the term “hedge fund” on Twitter. Mentions over the last two years have peaked at nearly 80,000 per month and have rarely fallen below 40,000. Hedge Fund Twitter Mentions 90,000 We are seeing a similar trend on the 80,000 hedge fund conference circuit, one 70,000 of the few places where fund 60,000 executives have been known to 50,000 shed their cloaks of secrecy and 40,000 share economic and strategic Mentions 30,000 20,000 insights. A relatively new element at 10,000 these major conferences is that they 0 are now social media friendly, leading attendees to live-Tweet their experiences. As a result, audiences have expanded from the select Source: GNIP Month group in attendance to anyone with Internet access. For example, the use of the #DeliveringAlpha hashtag increased by 9.4% from 2013 (5,053 Tweets) to 2014 (5,527 Tweets) on the day of the event. Similarly, there was a 62.6% year-over-year increase in the use of #IraSohn. The #DeliveringAlpha hashtag was even briefly trending on Twitter in July with 53.5 million estimated impressions.1 But how are hedge funds themselves using social media? Two recent examples: Carl Icahn’s Tweet about his dinner with Apple’s Tim Cook was retweeted nearly 500 times2, while Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio YouTube video explaining how the economy works has been viewed more than a million times.3 For a more comprehensive gauge, we looked at the HEDGE FUNDS ON TWITTER 292 members of Absolute Return’s list of hedge funds % on Twitter (29/292) 9.9% 4 with at least $1 billion in assets. Peppercomm Average AUM $8.97B research shows that 10% of the largest 292 hedge Average Followers 15,149 funds are on Twitter. Of these 29 funds, six have Average Tweets/Month 11 protected accounts. The remaining 23 have an Min. 1 Tweet/Month 10 average of more than 15,000 followers and average Min. 10 Tweets/Month 7 about 11 Tweets per month. By removing the three firms with the largest following—PIMCO, BlackRock and J.P. Morgan Asset Management—all of which have expertise and products well beyond and including hedge funds, those numbers drop to an average of 515 followers, with just four Twitter accounts generating new content more than once a month. In total, 10 hedge funds Tweet at least once a month and seven hedge funds Tweet at least 10 times per month. The lack of participation among 22 of the 29 hedge funds on Twitter suggests a lack of a strategic plan for how to use social media. Indeed, all but four of these Twitter accounts were launched prior to any JOBS Act legislation. Hedge funds are slowly coming to terms with the importance of social media. Many fund managers are shocked to find out how often their firm is mentioned on Twitter, yet they lack the experience to engage. “We can no longer keep our head in the sand,” said the manager of a billion-dollar credit fund who plans to join Twitter. We also looked at LinkedIn, where hedge funds are HEDGE FUNDS ON LINKEDIN more visible. Here, 66% of the largest hedge funds % on LinkedIn (188/292) 66.1% have a LinkedIn page. Of these 188 funds on Average AUM $6.60B LinkedIn, only six have posted any updates, and only Average Followers 2,305 four post more than 10 times a month. The 188 funds Min. 1 Post/Month 6 collectively manage $1.24 trillion and have an Min. 10 Posts/Month 4 average of 2,305 followers—each one representing a prospective investor, employee or journalist. Every decision not to post content is a missed opportunity to engage—a wasted opportunity to establish expertise or deepen a relationship. Social media can be an effective tool if used properly. We expect to see more hedge funds using social media platforms to establish thought leadership, share insights and improve their digital profile. An Expanding Web Presence A website should be a focal point of any organization’s communication strategy. This includes hedge funds, which have grown accustomed to operating in secrecy. Thanks to the JOBS Act, that is now showing early signs of change. Top U.S. Hedge Funds (87) U.S. Hedge Funds w/ $1-5 Billion (141) Basic Pages 6.9% Complex Basic Complex Website Pages Website 39.0% 34.8% 44.8% Splash 48.3% Pages 26.2% Splash Source: Peppercomm Source: Peppercomm Pages We looked at Absolute Return’s 2014 rankings of the largest 100 hedge funds in the world and found that 91% of them now have websites, including 90.6% (87/96) of U.S.- based hedge funds.5 Among these 87 funds, 48.3% have closed or simple splash pages6 and 6.9% have basic or very simple pages.7 That means a majority of U.S. hedge funds, 56.2%, have simplistic websites that provide little more than a logo. Extending this sample size to look at hedge funds with $1-5 billion in assets, 77.5% (141/182) of U.S. hedge funds have websites. Again we see the majority of them, 65.2%, have simple websites. However, change is happening. In 2013, only 44 out of the 185 global hedge funds with $1-5 billion in assets had websites (23.8%).8 By June of 2014, an additional 39 funds launched websites for the first time and 11 more moved from a closed site to a more open site, according to a Peppercomm survey. Although these mid-sized funds may not have as many marketing resources, they are beginning to understand the importance of a website. In addition to basic firm information and team bios, websites can also provide a controlled means to distribute content relevant to a firm’s strategy, thus helping to establish the firm as a thought leader. Of the 87 largest U.S.-based hedge funds with websites, 37.9% had newsroom components and 31.9% showed indications of thought leadership. Hedge funds in the $1-5 billion range are also generating content—23.6% have newsroom components and 15% are acting as thought leaders. Read All About It – Tracking Hedge Fund Media Mentions Media attention towards hedge funds is at record levels. We forecast “hedge fund” mentions in all media will top 100,000 articles in 2014 and will reach a record high above 35,000 mentions in top-tier financial media.9 That’s up nearly 5-fold over the last decade and holding at record levels over the past few years. Hedge Fund Mentions – All Media Hedge Fund Mentions – Top Media 120000 40000 Source: Factiva Source: Factiva 100000 30000 80000 60000 20000 40000 10000 20000 0 0 The media have always been fascinated with hedge funds. Big performance numbers, blow-ups, insider trading, big compensation, colorful characters, aggressive investment strategies and the mystique of the industry make for a potent media cocktail. Part of this growth can be attributed to the media’s endless demand for content. But the growth is also a clear reflection of the hedge fund industry’s increasing importance and visibility. As hedge funds diversify business lines, launch more mainstream products and initiate activist programs—and as their AUMs grow—more press follows.